NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

9 AUGUST 2015

            As we continue to reflect on the Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist, our Scripture readings remind us that God created us with a hunger and thirst that only God can fill.  Jesus reminds the crowds that God had offered manna and water from the rock in the desert as a sign of his power to satisfy their real hungers and thirsts. Jesus has been sent from God to fulfill that hunger and thirst at a level that Moses could never have imagined.

            Thomas Merton wrote a book which became a New York Times best seller soon after World War II.  That book, The Seven Story Mountain, was the autobiographical account of his conversion.  Not only did turning to God bring him to Baptism after living a rather selfish life, but it also led him to become a Trappist Monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.  As Merton continued to reflect on his conversion experience, he wrote about his continuing journey into eternity.  He wrote that we find God when we find our true self.  At one level, finding our true self is simple:  who we are, and always have been, in God.  Who we are in God is who we are forever.  However, that journey is difficult, because we are tempted to define ourselves in terms of what Merton called the “false self” – our reputations, titles, possessions, and other roles which ultimately pass away.  Merton does not define the false self as bad.  Rather, if we wrap ourselves with pleasures, experiences, titles, and accomplishments, there will be nothing left of us when we die.  We have failed to find God in failing to find our true selves.

            Jesus tells us that he is the Bread of life.  In believing in him, who feeds us with his own Body and Blood, we slowly and gradually find our true self.  We received our true self in Christ on the day when we were baptized.  To use Saint Paul’s term, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit.  In the ancient world, slaves were sealed with their master’s insignia, proclaiming that they belonged to someone.  Paul tells us that we belong to God, who draws us to find our true selves.  When we live our baptismal promises, we can let go of all those things that tend to tear apart at our true selves:  all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling, along with all malice. 

            That is why the Eucharist is so critical to our journey of finding our true selves, and ultimately finding the God who created us.  Jesus is very clear about it:  “I am the Bread of Life.  Whoever believes has eternal life.  Whoever eats this bread will live forever.  The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”  Jesus feeds us with this bread every Sunday (or every day for those who choose to come to daily Mass).  He feeds us when life is going well.  He feeds us in desperate situations, as God fed Elijah when he was running for us life from Queen Jezebel, who was trying to kill him for speaking the truth about the God of the Covenant.

            Sometimes young people tell me that they get away from the habit of regular participation at Sunday Mass, because they don’t get anything out of Mass.  (Don’t worry, I felt the same thing when I was your age, when my parents dragged me to Mass.  My Dad would remind us that if we wanted a meal, we had to go to Mass).  Do you expect that you will get “something out of Mass” every time you come, especially when the homily is not so good!  We continue to set aside this hour and make Mass a part of our weekly routine, because it is easy to get caught up in our false selves, to think that those false selves define who we are, and forget where we are going. 

            As the Body of Christ, joined to others, we become what we eat.  The journey is long and filled with danger.  What the angel said to Elijah, he says to us:  “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!”  Eating and drinking, we walk on this journey together to the God who created us, gave us our true selves, and wants us to be with him in eternity.

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2 AUGUST 2015

            When the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they were not treated as human beings.  As a result, they learned to distrust any authority figure, especially Pharaoh.  Slowly, they learned to trust Moses, as he pointed to the ten plagues as signs that God wanted them to be his free sons and daughters.  But when they ran out of food in the hostile environment of the desert, they slipped back into old patterns, lost trust in Moses, and wanted to return to being slaves in Egypt.  So, Moses used signs in the desert to regain their trust.  He instructed them to collect the secretions of insects as food before the sun became too hot.  They called this food manna.  Moses also taught them to gather quails exhausted from flying over the Mediterranean Sea for meat.  Moses called the manna “bread from heaven,” because it was a sign that they could trust in God as he taught them how to behave as free sons and daughters.

            Jesus used a sign to teach the crowds how to behave as God’s sons and daughters.  He fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish as a sign that they could trust his power to free them from whatever enslaves them.  But just as their ancestors could not look beyond manna as a sign that they could trust God, the crowds cannot look beyond the loaves and fishes to believe that he is the one sent by God.  They need to trust that he can free them from the slavery of sin and death.  They want him to give them another free lunch.  Like their ancestors, they see God as a Pharaoh who punishes when they are bad, or a Santa Claus who rewards when they are good.

            We gather for this Mass today, because we believe that Jesus is the Bread come down from heaven.  He feeds us with bread transformed into his Body and wine transformed into his Blood.  As partakers of the Mystery of the Eucharist, we are invited to take another step in trusting God.  But we cannot trust when we are living in any kind of slavery.  We can become slaves to almost anything – from alcohol to drugs to sex or food or bad habits.  We can be slaves to consumerism, believing that buying stuff will make us happy.  We can be slaves to popular opinion and become what others think we should become.  Television reality shows seem to take delight at the ways people can be enslaved and sell them as entertainment.

            Jesus invites us to take a closer look at our daily lives to admit the ways in which we might be slaves.  He invites us to trust him in our journey through the desert of recovery to learn how to behave as his sons and daughters.  Anyone who has gone through a twelve step program knows how difficult that journey can be.  The first step is to admit that I am not truly free, because I am enslaved to something.  With that honest admission, we take the next steps of learning that we can let go of whatever had enslaved us to a deeper trust in God.  Instead of seeing God as a Pharaoh who punishes us when we misbehave or Santa Claus who rewards us when we are good, we develop a faith in God who will always provide us with what we need.

            One important way of growing in this deeper faith is to open our eyes to see the signs of God’s love already around us.  The first sign might be the sun coming up in the morning.  In the light of a new day, as we open our eyes to signs of God’s love in the embrace of a loved one or the smile of a friend.  Kindness from a fellow worker can be a sign of God’s love.  Special occasions like births or baptisms or weddings can be powerful signs.  The sign might be the presence of our friend from Africa, who always lets us know how we can make life better for the people of his parish in Uganda.  When we become attentive to these natural signs of God’s love, as the ancient Hebrews became attentive to the food they received in the desert, we can approach the ultimate sign of God’s love in the Eucharist with a depth of faith that enables us to trust God, no matter what is happening.

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

19 JULY 2015

            Jesus is teaching the apostles how to do healthy ministry.  He had sent them out to do the work he had been doing:  expelling demons, healing the sick, and proclaiming the message that the Kingdom of God had arrived.  When they return, they gather around Jesus to report on all they had done and taught.  But the joy generated by their accomplishments is tempered by some very bad news.  Herod had executed John the Baptist.  The one who had preached repentance, pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God, and baptized him in the Jordan River, is dead.  His death brings sorrow and distress for them.  It also brought a sense of gloom that what happened to John the Baptist could happen to any of them, when they choose to speak the truth.

            Jesus responds by inviting them to go away by themselves to a deserted place to rest.  At that deserted place, they would not only get some much needed physical rest.  In their solitude, Jesus can teach them and help them reflect on everything that had happened and make sense of it all.  In this solitude and reflection, they can receive a spiritual refilling.  Jesus wants to teach them that healthy ministry involves hard work with multitudes of people.  It also involves stepping back and taking time to listen to the Word and be renewed.

            However, this spiritual refilling takes a back seat to the needs of people.  The people of Galilee had been considered to be of little value to the religious authorities of Jerusalem.  They are hungering for direction, like sheep without a shepherd.  They crave the teachings of Jesus so much that they rush to the other side of the lake to “cut him off at the pass”.  Even though Jesus and the apostles are exhausted, Jesus has pity on them.  His pity is a compassion which is born out of sorrow for their suffering.  So, he sets aside his own needs and the legitimate needs of the apostles to rest, and teaches them.

            There are two lessons for all of us who hear God’s Word today.  The first lesson is for us who are called to minister in the Church.  Whether we are ordained, serve as lay ministers on staff, or as lay ministers in any capacity, we are called to serve the needs of the parish.  In order to be effective, we must set aside time for solitude and prayer, allowing the Lord to refresh our spirits.  However, the needs of the parish come first.  We might feel spent after celebrating so many funerals.  But, if someone else is near death, we must set aside any problems in our personal lives, and serve their needs.  That is why Jeremiah is so critical of the religious leaders of his time.  They were so busy taking care of their own needs that they ignored the needs of their people.  Like sheep, they were scattered and hauled into exile.

            The second lesson is for all who are disciples of the Lord.  Rejected by people of his home town, Jesus knows that the vast majority of the people living in the northern part of the Sea of Galilee understand that he can give them direction.  They realize that they have needs which only Jesus and his apostles can give.  The same is true of us.  We do not have all the answers.  In gathering here today to hear the Word of God, we are acknowledging that we need guidance and direction.  We admit that we are like sheep, not being able to guide ourselves.  We need the care of the Good Shepherd, and of those who minister in his name, to refresh our souls.

            After Jesus teaches this vast crowd of 5,000 people, he will take five loaves and two fish and feed them all.  Beginning next Sunday, we will depart from the Gospel of Mark and listen for five Sundays to the Gospel of John, helping us to understand how the Lord feeds us with his Body and Blood in the Eucharist.  But for now, we focus on the Liturgy of the Word.  The Lord feeds us with his Word, challenging us to be good and healthy ministers.  The Lord feeds us with his Word, especially when we are honest enough to know that we are needy people.

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

12 JULY 2015

            When Saint Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians, he shares his vision of faith.  Ephesus was an important port city in the ancient world.  With ships bringing in goods from around the Mediterranean Sea, Ephesus had a very diverse culture with many nationalities and languages.  Under the authority of Caesar, whom the citizens called “lord,” there was an emphasis on learning.  By studying the various philosophers and appealing to the correct gods, the Ephesians were searching for what was really important and what would really last.  Even today, the façade of the great library still stands in Ephesus.

            To this diverse and educated group, Saint Paul clearly states that God, the Father of Jesus Christ, is the ultimate meaning of life.  He calls on the Ephesians to let go of whatever they are currently worshipping and give their allegiance to the one God who had revealed himself in history to his Chosen People.  He insists that the real Lord is Jesus Christ, not Caesar.  Through Jesus Christ and through the Mystery of his death and resurrection, God has chosen us to be holy and without blemish to accomplish his will, drawing everyone to himself.

            These words form the beginning of one of Saint Paul’s most eloquent letters.  They remain more than a nice beginning.  They speak to us today.  We too live in a diverse culture.  We too pride ourselves on being educated people.  We live in a culture which emphasizes the individual and stresses the importance of making choices to form our lives.  We may not have a pantheon of statues of gods in a temple.  But, our culture tells us that the most important values involve living comfortable lives, making money, getting the best jobs, and being happy.

            Although these things are not bad in themselves, Paul insists that the source of our ultimate happiness lies in being in union with God.  He challenges us to take another look at our lives to see what we worship today.  We can easily put all our energies into pursuing those things in life which turn out to be false gods and which cannot last. 

            Saint Paul encourages us to make sure that Jesus Christ is truly the Lord of our lives, trusting in the Paschal Mystery.  If we trust in that Mystery and recognize Jesus as Lord, then we can more easily embrace those crosses that seem to have the power to destroy us.  If we are willing to enter into the Mystery of the Lord’s dying by giving ourselves in humble service to others, then we can trust that we can share in his rising.  We can recognize those sacrifices we make not as burdens that oppress us, but as the means to free us to make better choices.

            Just as Paul knew that he had been chosen by Jesus Christ to spread this Good News to the ancient world, he wants us to see that whatever choices we make must be rooted in our awareness that God has chosen us in the first place.  Just as God had chosen Amos to speak the truth to the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, God has chosen us to be his people and speak the truth in our culture.  Just as Jesus sent the Twelve to continue his work of teaching and healing, he sends us to do the same today. 

            We do not need a lot of stuff to carry on his mission.  In fact, too much stuff can get in our way and obscure the presence of God in our midst.  But we do need each other.  That is why Jesus sends the Twelve out in pairs.  In our culture, more and more people are saying that they are spiritual, but not religious.  They are implying that they can live and spread the Paschal Mystery on an individual basis.  We know that is not true, and that is why we are here today to celebrate the Eucharist.  It is true that where two or three are gathered, the Lord is present.  As Saint Paul tells us, the promised Holy Spirit guides us as God’s Chosen People.  The Holy Spirit is the first installment of our inheritance.  Together, we trust that installment.

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

5 JULY 2015

            The job of a prophet is never easy.  God called Ezekiel to speak the truth to his people in exile in Babylon.  He had to tell them the reason why they were in captivity.  They had rebelled against the Covenant and now were paying the consequences.  They certainly did not want to hear this harsh truth.  But, in time, they learned that facing the truth would bring them to repent and accept God’s gracious mercy, returning them to their homeland and rebuilding their lives.

            Jesus has a similar experience when he comes home.  His reputation has preceded him, and people had heard of the miracles and healings he had worked.  They are astonished when he gets up in the synagogue and gives them his amazing wisdom.  But they cannot believe, because he is too ordinary.  They had grown up with him.  He had no special training and was an ordinary laborer.  He had broken ties with his human family and had formed a new family of disciples who traveled with him.  In seeing his humanity so fully, they cannot recognize his divinity.  They cannot believe that he is the living Word of God.

            We have a similar problem in this family which is the Church.  We clearly see the humanity of the Church.  In the last fifty years, our Church has gone through many changes.  It is easy to walk away when those changes make us uncomfortable.  We can divide ourselves into certain categories, calling ourselves conservatives or liberals, digging in our heels to avoid those with whom we disagree.  We can change parishes, because we do not get along with the new priest or do not agree with the decisions of crazy pastors like me.  The scandals of the past decade have shaken the faith of others.  In seeing the very human face of the Church, we can become like those people of Jesus’ hometown.  We have problems recognizing the divinity behind the very human traits of our Church.

            When babies are baptized, they are anointed with Chrism, signifying that they have become priests, kings, and prophets.  As prophets, we are called to recognize the truth and speak it.  We do that best by remaining faithful to God’s presence in our Church and trusting that the Lord continues to work in our midst, even when we might be baffled by the very human weaknesses of our Church.  We depend on God’s grace to remain faithful and be open to the miracles which the Lord continues to work in our midst.

            Saint Paul can be very helpful in learning how to be a good prophet.  Saint Paul could easily brag about his accomplishments.  Scripture scholars estimate that he traveled 15,000 miles to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Paul was responsible for taking a movement within Judaism and making Christianity a worldwide religion.  But, instead of bragging about his many accomplishments, he boasts about his weakness.  He talks about having a thorn in the flesh.  We do not know what that thorn was.  It could have been something about his personal appearance.  It could have been an annoying quality that he hated about himself.  It could have been some habit that he could not break.  Whatever it was, he prayed that God would remove his thorn, just as Jesus had prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane that his Father would remove the cross.  In accepting his thorn, Paul learned the power of God’s grace.  In accepting his weakness, he learned that he had to depend on God’s grace.  It was God’s grace working through him and not his own gifts that allowed him to be such an effective prophet.

            Each one of us has our own thorn in the flesh.  There is some kind of defect that we cannot change and that drives us crazy.  When I can honestly admit my thorn, then I can more easily look beyond the very human qualities of the Church and allow God’s grace to open our eyes to his presence.  God’s grace is sufficient for me, as it is with the Church he has established.

ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

14 JUNE 2015

            Saint Paul says that we need to be courageous and walk by faith, not by sight.  In saying that, he is really telling us to walk through life with the conviction that God is in charge.  That is what the prophet Ezekiel had told his people some six hundred years earlier.  He was among the 3,000 movers and shakers who had been taken into exile in Babylon.  While in Babylon, he and his fellow exiles heard that the Babylonians had completely destroyed Jerusalem, torn down their temple, and murdered their king.  That royal tree of David which had grown strong from the root of Jesse had been cut down.  In the midst of their grief and despair, Ezekiel assures his people that God is in charge.  He tells them that God will take the top part of what is left of that majestic tree and transplant it back on Mount Zion.  Because God is in charge, people from every nation will be drawn to the reconstructed Jerusalem and dwell in God’s shadow.

            We see Ezekiel’s prophecy fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God:  that God is in charge.  In sending out his disciples to proclaim that Kingdom, he instructs them to spread the Word as well as they can, like a farmer sows seed in a field.  Once that work is done, disciples need to trust that the Kingdom will grow, because God is in charge.

            For those who first heard the Gospel of Saint Mark, the parable of the mustard seed spoke strongly to them.  They had chosen to follow a peasant from Galilee who had been murdered like a common criminal outside the walls of Jerusalem.  They came to believe that God was in charge, because the Father had raised Jesus from the dead.  The initial growth of the Church was as small and insignificant as a tiny mustard seed.  But because they believed that God was in charge, they gradually watched as those humble beginnings begin to grow and attract new members, even in the face of persecution by a state that saw this movement as dangerous to the culture.  This new Church spread throughout the Mediterranean Sea and took root in Rome.

            This has been the way the Church has grown throughout history.  This pattern has repeated itself over and over again.  In the late 19^th century, a group of young men were invited to become pages of a powerful king at a place called Namugongo in Uganda.  These young men had recently become Christian.  Some were still Catechumens.  When they discovered that the king wanted sexual favors from them, they resisted him, under the leadership of Charles Lwanga.  In the face of his threats, they trusted that God was in charge.  He ruthlessly murdered all of them, and the situation was desperate.  It seemed like a mustard seed.  But the word of their courage began to spread and brought other people to believe in the Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus Christ.  We celebrated their Feast Day on June 3.  My friend, Father Larry Kanyike, e-mailed me to say that a million people gathered at the Shrine of the Martyrs in Namugongo on that day to celebrate Mass.  Christianity has become the fastest growing religion in sub-Saharan Africa and has grown into a very large shrub, attracting many people to dwell in it.

            Saint Paul wants us to walk by faith, not by sight, trusting that God is in charge.  We must do whatever we can to further the Kingdom of God.  We need to practice our faith and teach our children.  We need to work for a more just world.  We need to share our resources with those in need.  We need to pray for those things which we think we desperately need.  But, then we need to trust that God is in charge, even when we watch our world descend into violence, and even when it seems like our prayers are not being answered.

            It takes courage to walk by faith, not by sight, because our sight alone cannot see the ways that God is in charge.  What seems like a mustard seed grows eventually into a very large bush.  We may not see that bush now.  But it exists.  We trust that through faith.

THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

7 JUNE 2015

            On the Sundays during the Easter Season, our liturgy expressed the truth that we are members of the New Covenant through our Baptisms.  We began every Mass by sprinkling the congregation with Holy Water.  It is my favorite time of the year, watching people remove their glasses and shielding their heads from the dousing of the water which they know is coming.

            If you are glad to see the Easter Season gone because you are tired of being doused with water, you can be glad that you were not part of the congregation when Moses sealed the First Covenant at Mount Sinai.  During that liturgy, Moses took the blood of two young bulls and sprinkled part of the blood on the Altar, and the other part on the congregation.  That is much worse than being doused with water at Saint Pius!  Blood signified life.  The blood of sacrificed animals symbolized the life which God has now shared with his people through the Covenant.

            The Letter to the Hebrews uses the image of this First Covenant Liturgy to help us understand what Jesus Christ has done.  By shedding his blood on the cross, Jesus gave his entire life for us.  He established a New Covenant, sealed in his blood, which promises eternal life for those who participate.  That perfect Sacrifice is made present every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist.  On this Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we rejoice that we have been formed into the Body of Christ and nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ at every Mass.

            This is also a perfect day for a new priest to celebrate his First Mass. Father Bill, as a priest configured in a unique way to the person of Jesus Christ, you now have the task of pouring out your very life in the service of the people to whom you are assigned.  As you pour out your life, the celebration of the Eucharist will be central to everything you do.  It will be your greatest joy.  It will be your greatest comfort.  It will be your greatest strength as you learn to live the implications of pouring out your life in humble service.

            We, the people of Saint Pius X, cannot tell you how happy we are that you have been assigned to us.  You are no stranger to us.  We know your wonderful strengths and talents, and we love to make fun of those character quirks which you so prominently display.  We will have to figure out how to distinguish two Father Bills.  “Father Bill the Greater, and Father Bill the Lesser!”  “Father Bill the senile and Father Bill the young one!”  We’ll see!

            But that great joy of ours is balanced by the real sadness of losing Father Terry.  He has been a much beloved priest here for four years, and we will miss him.  This mixture of joy and sadness will be an integral part of your priestly ministry.  You will help a family mourn the tragic and unexpected loss of a young person at a Funeral Mass on one day.  On the next, you will share the joy of two families coming together to celebrate the wedding of their children.  A couple will come to you for help, because their marriage is falling apart.  Within an hour, another couple will approach you with the good news that they are expecting a child.  Fourteen people will come to you after Mass to congratulate you on the great homily you just gave.  One person will criticize you, and you will freak out for weeks!

            In your priestly ministry, trust the power of this Eucharistic Sacrifice.  As you pour out your very lifeblood for your people, the death and resurrection of the Lord will be made present to you in the Eucharist.  You will identify with the dying of the Lord in the tough situations.  You will rejoice with the rising of the Lord in the joyous times.  It is that Mystery which defines the New Covenant sealed by the Blood of Jesus Christ.  It is that Mystery which you will proclaim in so many ways.  May God bless you and keep you as you begin this great ministry.  May God bring to completion the good work in you which he is beginning today!